Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy said that Brand, who has missed the entire season with an Achilles tendon injury, definitely will play Sunday against the Rockets, but the forward might return as soon as Thursday against the Kings. "I love to hoop," Brand said, according to The Los Angeles Times. "I'm excited to go out there and really give it a test." Brand, who averaged 20.5 points and 9.3 rebounds last season, tore his left Achilles tendon Aug. 3 during a workout. Without Brand, the Clippers are 22-52. Last season with Brand, the Clippers were 40-42 and missed out on qualifying for the playoffs by two games.

The first instinct here is "why would you risk a reaggravaton of the injury?" But, let's be honest: The guy is no more likely to re-injure himself in a league game than in a full contact practice or an intense summer workout. Then there's the matter of the lottery. My uninformed sense is that Dunleavy will keep Brand's minutes to a minimum over the next couple of weeks. But I think there's real value in seeing how Thornton and Brand operate together at the 3 and 4 respectively -- if not for the team's overall development, than for my personal edification, dammit.

Posted Wednesday, October 29 at 3:20PM

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Looks like Kamen is done for the season. These next 2 games are the only winable games Clippers have left. Wouldn't mind seeing Brand play in the last 2 games of the year if the losses don't matter anymore.

I predict the jump ball tonight hits the floor. Seattle is doing a good job tanking too.

And Maggetti is an idiot if he doesn't leave this year (or is signed long term by the Clippers). There's no way he'll average over 22pts a game next year. Dunleavy will run plays for Brand, Thorton, Kamen and the draft pick ahead of him.

And he should never forget Dunleavy's playing Doug Christie over him which lead to:

It's just more of Mike Dunleavy's (expletive) again. It's totally unbelievable that I couldn't help this team tonight. Tell me something. He isn't listening to (Donald) Sterling. If he listened to him, I'd be playing. It's crazy. I really felt we were (beyond) this. I guess not because here we go, again. I'm a yo-yo man. Give me an excuse. Give me something. Just tell me something. I'm a grown man. I can take it. It's crazy."

typical small-minded selfish thinking. Why dont you look at it from the boss's perspective. The coach does what he does and doesnt need to be questioned by the employees. Is he always right? No. But thats the way it is.

Firedunleavy.com..that assumes that EB is coming back. He's already signed an offer sheet to play for the Heat once, and this time the Clips can't match. If the Heat let Marion go, they'll have a grip of cap space, and you can bet EB will be their main target this off-season, even with some uncertainty of his ability to recover from the achilles injury completely.

This off-season will be extremely interesting for us to watch unfold. We'll see if MD the self-proclaimed resident genius can keep his front court players here, and get some guards not names Dickau, Knight, Smush or Brunson here cause at the end of the day, when the money is relatively the same..good players want to have a chance to win, and make the $$.

If both EB and Maggs decide to bolt, we can thank MD and the current management structure for the implosion. It'll truly be an indictment on their ability to build a quality team for more than one damn season.

And if the Clips brass can keep this thing together, they'll deserve a ton of credit. The shitty thing is the Clips brass have never delivered like they're going to need to this off-season. There's basically no margin for error if they want to have a shot at competing in the West.

Miami has no control over the Marion situation, it depends of if Marion leaves then they have cash to spend. But i don't see Marion leaving 17 million on the table and he's already purchased a home in Miami. Miami is not going to be a concern, unless Marion decides to opt out

First of all, nobody gives two shits about the clipper spirit making the dance finals, QD. You are insulting our collective intelligence if you think that some sort of a ficticious spirit win is any kind of solice for this terrible hoops season. The girls are great to look at during timeouts, but that's about it.

Second, Marion had been moaning about a new contract and looking to bust out of PHX for some time. Now that he's in Miami and away from Stuodamire's shadow, he has one goal left to meet, and that's getting paid again. You're right in that leaving $17M on the table will be tough for him, but not if he can get another 50M or so over 4-5 years from someone in the off-season.

Just a pipe dream here---but imagine if you could slide Artest into Magg's SF spot next year? WOW-- an all-league defender with EB, Kaman and Thornton out there... maybe we score a PG somewhere along the way... What a squad...

He wants Artest on his team. I posted before how he covets Stephen Jackson, Artest, Tinsley, Nate Robinson, and that other forward on the Knicks. Pick a NBA degenerate and ACD will want him on the team. ACD should just move to Denver and be a Nuggets fan. That way he could get his dream of both a winning team and a team full of neck tatoos. If Denver is too cold for him he can always go with the Knicks, or the Warriors. hahahaha

Ya and with how easily MD gets confused, let's artest at him as well. What a recipe for disaster, and comical actually. Part of me would be interested to see that train wreck though cause it'd be funny as hell to watch MD try to handle planet ron ron, hilarious.

If you're a defender chasing around a shooting guard, it's exceedingly difficult to get past a Tim Thomas screen. With Phoenix in the postseason, we saw how seemingly every possession for the Suns started with a Thomas high S/R, followed by either a fade or a dive/drag toward the basket. It's more effective in a frenetic offense, but the Clips don't use him enough [or he doesn't take enough initiative...who knows anymore?] on the strong side. Instead, the Clippers rely on this popular [and increasingly antiquated] notion that somehow, if Thomas stands out on the arc, he'll effectively "spread the floor," as if his defender can't sag if Cassell has dribbled to the far left corner -- where he traditionally likes to back down his defender --- or even if Elton has the ball in the low post against a much larger defender over whom he can't zip a pass out to the far side perimeter.

04/12/08 01:51:54

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